House hunting sites, any good ones
- Thread starter Gtiracer
- Start date
Associate
if you are renting gumtree has some
Soldato
Why? RM has the biggest audience. This is why I absolutely detest estate agents. They basically fleece the crap out of everyone and don't do their jobs properly.
Rightmove
Zoopla
Gumtree
not really tried primelocation though so shall give that a look thanks for suggestions
Soldato
They believe them to be a monster monopoly. Advertised themselves for ages for free then started charging a shed load once they had enough customers. Nobody could say no.
I think it's a great business model but just saying why estate agents hate them.
And yet their presence has allowed online estate agents to pop up. We are on the market at the moment, we paid a one-off fee of £300 (£350 including energy certificate) which included a professional photographer coming to our home & creating floor plans. They manage our online adverts for 12 months and within a week of being on the market, we already have 5 viewings.
Screw the high-street estate agents, they are over-priced & typically a waste of time.
If they aren't prepared to advertise through the likes of RightMove, then honestly they don't deserve my business.
If you know the area then yellow pages the local agents, create one email with all your details and requirements then email them all at once, no one should ignore your email.
I'd put in there email correspondence only and you will call them if anything interests you.
I'd put in there email correspondence only and you will call them if anything interests you.
Associate
Things like local papers and friday ad have some good private stuff but you normally have to deal direct with the owner, which has pros and cons.
that's best way to hunting
Soldato
+1
You pay for what you get. In London most agents do advertise on rightmove although frankly a good agent will have five viewings and more lined up for you even before the advert reaches rightmove. It's people like you who seem to think agents owe you something and should be of so greatfull they get to make 50p for selling your place. It's also people like you who pay as little as possible out if pure resentment and then expect to get a top class service.
Anyone can get you lots of viewings - if it's on rightmove then the viewings will come through without any effort from the agent. It's at the point that you accept an offer and the conveyancing begins when the agent earns their money. 9 times out 10 it's because you have a decent agent that really rocky sales go through. You clearly have no respect or appreciation for the sheer amount if effort needed and vast importance of having a decent agent on your side. Enjoy your online agent experience and expect unanswered phones, unmotivated staff, clueless legal advice and the inevitable fall through or massive price reduction that your budget 'agent' has absolutely no idea how to manage or prevent. In the mean time those who have a little more respect and understand the concept of not being cheap but spending their money wisely will be moving on happily.
Strange, this sounds exactly like every estate agent I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Also no one should ever take legal advice from an estate agent.
I quite like http://www.home.co.uk. I used it last year, and it appears to aggregate results from many sources.
Soldato
Technically, they don't even do a job! All they do is put a house on rightmove for you at an extortionate cost! Most people do their own viewings etc so I really can't see the point in Estate Agents, except for those people who can't arrange viewings or deal with the negotiations of sale (i.e. the elderley or those who are simply not savvy enough to deal with it).
They do nothing.
The best thing to do to sell your house is find one of those online estate agents who put your house on rightmove for you and you can do the rest. So much cheaper.
Rightmove sells your house for you, not estate agents.
Soldato
I strongly disagree with most of that. Estate agents are needed for some cases where people are incapable of selling their houses. However, if I wanted to sell my house, I could handle all of it myself, all I would need is the exposure on rightmove, which I could only get via an Estate Agent.
For an EA to then scrape 2-3% of the sale price in costs for selling the house, i.e. doing practically nothing, is just outrageous. Honestly, I don't know why we have so many of them around. With online estate agents, I can see their position becoming largely untenable in the future, which hopefully will keep prices low.
Soldato
